U Colorado Boulder Students Launch Co-Working Space

Students at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder will launch a co-working space in an effort to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship and connect students with area businesses.

Dubbed Spark Boulder and scheduled to open February 21, the space will feature desks, Wi-Fi access, printers, mailboxes, conference rooms with phone and video capability, mentoring, server services, iPads, iPhones, Android devices and weekly speed-networking events. Spark Boulder will be open to the public and will offer monthly memberships to students at a discounted rate.

"We're building a bridge between CU-Boulder and the amazing startup ecosystem that's all over Colorado," said Fletcher Richman, managing director of Spark Boulder and a senior in electrical and computer engineering, in a prepared statment. "We're giving businesses a way to tap into the talent that's on campus while also bringing more visibility and introducing students to the businesses that want to talk with them."

"Campuses in general can be fragmented places and that's not really ideal for starting great businesses or coming up with really innovative ideas," added Richman. "We want to bring together students from engineering, arts and sciences, law, business and other departments, and put them in one space and allow them to interact with people who think differently than they do."

"Richman is launching the 5,400-square-foot Spark Boulder with Bill Shrum, a senior in environmental design," according to a CU-Boulder news release, "and Ben Buie, a spring 2013 graduate of CU-Boulder's MBA program."

Early projects underway at Spark Boulder include "a Web platform that connects people with expert professionals instantly through video chat, an aquaponics — or food production — system, a student-run design agency and the development of iPhone apps," according to the news release.